h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Magic Roundabout, Swindon, UK - A2966484
Author: Felonious Monk: Join The Penguin Cafe Book Club at A2819937! - U108659

This was submitted earlier: I've just grabbed it and resubmitted it so I can edit it.

gald --> glad

OK, FM. no doubt you'll take out the link to the unedited entry (Swindon).

'Its purpose is known to no mortal on this earth.' Not true! The designers obviously knew and according to one of the links, it has fewer collisions than would be normally associated with a large junction with the amount of branches and traffic that this has.

Interestingly, looking at the edited links, all the ones I looked at could do with being submitted to the Update Forum!

Done it once. Method was: grit teeth, ignore normal roundabout rules as brain doesn't process at that speed, go for it, dodge oncoming traffic while trying to see exit signs, sign deeply and shout "what the **** was that?" to passenger.

Seriously, there must be a reason for its existence, even if it was a joke on the part of the planners. I think the author should try to research this. Definitely needs a guide entry though, and this describes it well.

seems good to me - never personally experienced it though...

surely Ned is Non Educated Delinquent rather than "nom"

There's already a link in the entry which explains it, DBe:

http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

Excellent Entry, as already mentioned.

HELL

Oh yeah

Younger daughter admits that she used to drive it muttering "English, Portuguese, English! Phew!!"

I do not drive. Don't even have a license to drive a motor vehicle. May I ask what am I doing here?

Ah, I see. I subscribed to peer review. Since I have not read your entry yet, I have no comments to make. I'll make up for my mistake by reading it now. If I have some remarks to make, you will surely hear from me.

I have no idea. Waiting for a cow with a hat and a stoned rabbit, perhaps?

Some more changes made, mainly taking out links to unedited entries and some superfluous verbiage.

FM, to me this reads like a diatribe against the roundabout. Even the link to the reasons the roundabout, which cites that road casualties are fewer than would be expected, has built has been taken out of the body of the entry and relegated to a reference. I'm not sure that the entry can be said to be balanced as I cannot see any reference to arguments *for* the roundabout. Edited Guide entries are supposed to be balanced. Is this?

Oh, for heaven's sake: it's a well-written but irreverent look at an example of idiosyncratic local planning and merely sets out to capture the bemusement that many drivers must experience on first encountering it. I hardly see what 'balance' could bring in this context: it's not exactly as if it's a divisive issue that needs to be handled with all circumspection. It's a traffic roundabout, that's all.

Yes it is a nicely written irreverent piece - and it needs some balance. Shouldn't be too difficult to do.

And what improvement, precisely, would 'balance' bring to this article? Would it fill in any gaps in the understanding of the reader? Or would it simply blunt its semi-satirical edge? My money is on the latter.

While you're being so po-faced about balance, you might care to suggest that this classic on a similar subject, A303346, be given the balancing treatment via the Update forum. Or this one, for example: A112339. This article is in the same vein. If you can't grasp that, well, I pity you.

No pity needed, FM. The comment stands.

And my response to it stands as well.

I can see both sides this argument, and I'm finding it difficult to disagree with either of you, which is a mite frustrating.

I do like the entry as it stands. It not about whether the island is a good idea of a bad one, but rather about the experience of driving through it. And, as I once heard from my sister, it is a bizare thing to drive through.

On the other hand, despite it's apparent weirdness, it is a relatively safe bit of road, it seems. So I can see the point that the entry could be amended to include a coda on the end to that effect.

I just can't decide whether that amendment would be an improvement or a distraction.

Goodness me, these fence posts are rather sharp to sit on, aren't they?


Geggs